Local Culture

Native Alaskans living within and near the Yukon Flats are primarily Gwich'in Athabascan Indians. Until fairly recent times, Athabascans were highly mobile people, moving in family groups throughout a home territory. Following contact with Europeans, Athabascans started settling in more permanent villages that evolved around trading posts and, primarily, newly constructed schools.

Subsistence activities are central to Athabascan social and cultural values. Athabascans follow a pattern of subsistence activities that reflect the seasonal cycle of harvestable resources. Subsistence links Native peoples with the animal resources and lands upon which they depend. Subsistence also links each village, in many ways, with its past. Young hunters learn skills and animal lore from their elders-older, experienced hunters (Berger, 1985). Athabascans believe that the act of physically harvesting their food is intrinsically related to other aspects of their world. They see threats to subsistence as threats to their cultural survival (Case and Voluck, 2002). For many Athabascans, subsistence embodies the truths that give meaning to human life-enabling “. . . Native peoples to feel at one with their ancestors, at home in the present, and confident of the future” (Berger, 1985, p. 55).

Residents of the following seven villages, located within or near the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, use Yukon Flats resources for subsistence: Beaver, Birch Creek, Chalkyitsik, Circle, Fort Yukon, Stevens Village, and Venetie These villages, as well as the Native regional corporation, Doyon Ltd., own land within the Yukon Flats Refuge. These lands were conveyed to the Native peoples under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Approximately 2.5 million acres of land within the refuge boundaries are in Native ownership. Native residents of the seven villages are also represented by a non-profit organization known as the Tanana Chiefs Council.

References:Berger, T.R. 1985. Village Journey: The Report of the Alaska Native Review Commission. Hill and Wang, New York. 202pp.